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Houston mayor Annise Parker has called for a “Census Sabbath” this weekend, asking religious leaders to proclaim her message of the necessity of filling out census forms. As a pastor, when I teach about church/state relations, I affirm our obligation to be good citizens, to give Caesar the things that belong to him. Obeying the…

Today was the dedication of the new Catholic cathedral in Houston. I watched the ceremony on TV, and saw lots of my former co-workers, employees, bosses, and young adults. I was as frustrated as ever by the narration of Cardinal John Foley–he walked all over the liturgy just as he does with the Vatican broadcasts.…

The dedication ceremonies for Houston’s new cathedral began this evening with vespers; the mass of dedication will be at noon tomorrow, and will be carried by ABC 13 on TV and on the internet. Here’s the order of worship. Rocco Palmo has some comments.

I hate to keep rubbing it in to my friends who are still inundated with snow up north <g>, but …. Today I mowed my lawn for the first time. The marigolds are doing well, and add some nice color to the walk. The gladiolus will probably bloom in another week. The hibiscus by the…

The new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart will be dedicated this week in Houston. I was at the groundbreaking, and toured it a couple of times during construction (even got all the way up in the dome), and would certainly have been attending this dedication if I hadn’t left the employ of the archdiocese last…

It’s Go Texan Day in Houston, the day we celebrate the opening of Rodeo. The barbecue contest started last night; trail rides are converging today on Memorial Park from throughout the region; the parade is tomorrow; gates open Monday. I went to the barbecue contest once, invited by one particular organization to their tent; we…

Andrew had the day off school, so we went into town. First stop, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, which had an interesting exhibit on Islamic calligraphy (including a mid-7th century page of the Qur’an). Then we went a couple of blocks away to Holocaust Museum Houston, where I showed him the Eugenics/Euthanasia exhibit and the…

Smiley Pool of the Houston Chronicle has a picture of a hat given to Cardinardo by Fr. David Noble–a red cowboy hat with tassles. You’ve got to know David to really appreciate this. He and his twin brother, Bruce, are Aussies; David is a hospital chaplain, as was Bruce, before being named pastor of Our…

The Houston media is all a flutter this week, what with Dan DiNardo getting his red hat. Houston Chronicle reporter Tara Dooley and photographer Smiley Pool are keeping a blog. So are the folks at KHOU. Rocco Palmo is also following events (and has even adopted the term, “Cardinardo,” which I first used back on…

Dan DiNardo gets a red hat–Rocco and a half dozen newspapers had it early, and you read it here before you saw it on the Houston Chronicle or Archdiocesan webpages. DiNardo will wear it well–in the manner of a renaissance cardinal (take that how you will). Cardinal DiNardo … How about “Cardinardo” for short? AP…

Houston Press–Parish Predators: Trial Set in Molestation Case against Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. After three years of legal wrangling, a trial has been set in the case of four men who sued the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston for alleged negligence related to sexual abuse they suffered at a diocesan parish in the mid-1990s. The trial has been…

Hurricane Humberto: Call it the instant hurricane. Humberto, which grew faster than any storm on record from tropical depression to full-scale hurricane landfall, surprised the Texas-Louisiana coast early Thursday with 85-mph winds and heavy rain that knocked out power to more than 100,000 and left at least one person dead. Meteorologists were at a loss…

Tropical Storm Humberto suddenly materialized off the coast, and will be visiting us tonight. Update: He’s gone to the east of us. We’re high and dry. Further Update: He was officially upgraded to a hurricane. Wow.

Google Maps has this new “Street View” feature whereby you can click on a street and get the few from the ground. They have a fleet of vehicles with multiple cameras atop that give 360 views, and they drive these up and down the streets of major cities. They’ve caught some interesting pictures, to the…

Archbishop Daniel DiNardo has appointed a new Superintendent of Schools, Sr. Kevina Keating, CCVI. She’s a graduate of Dominican College, University of San Francisco, and Stanford. She’s been on the board of Christus Health, was director of teacher education at University of San Francisco, and had been in community leadership in the Sisters of Charity…

It seems lots of big name folks are up in arms over a display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science over a new display. HMNS is exhibiting “Lucy,” the supposed early human ancestor found in Ethiopia. The critics accuse the museum of sensationalism and of “prostituting” the fossils. A decade old UN policy says…

I feel sorry for folks in Jamaica and Mexico, of course, but I am nonetheless very relieved that we are now completely out of the projected path of any of the computer models. From Sunday’s Houston Chronicle, Lessons Unlearned after Rita. E.g., Who should evacuate? We’re far to the west side of Houston, not in…

We were back to Miller Outdoor Theater tonight for “Romeo & Juliet,” the second offering in this year’s Houston Shakespeare Festival. Director Carolyn Boone sets it in the 1920s/30s world of New York gangsters, with gunfights and switchblades. I was disappointed. The accents swung from Texan to Brooklyn to faux-English, the microphones slipped from time…

After three months, they’ve finally replaced me at the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston (for a summary of what I did my nine years there, see this post). The new Director of Young Adult and Campus Ministry is Roberto Navarro, and today was his first day on the job. He comes from the Diocese of Austin, where…

It’s summer, and time for the Houston Shakespeare Festival at Miller Outdoor Theatre. This year’s plays are “Love’s Labor’s Lost” and “Romeo and Juliet.” We’re planning on going the next two Thursday nights, if anyone would like to plan on meeting us there.

He was a striking image in his blue glasses and white hair, and a prominent feature of Houston television for many years, battling with “Marvin’s Angels” for justice for consumers, and against “SLIME IN THE ICE MACHINE!” His reporting brought down the Chicken Ranch in La Grange, TX, inspired a Broadway musical and a movie.…

A local guy who’s been playing with cars for many years was honored in Indianapolis yesterday — fifty years after he showed up for the first time, unannounced, eager to race. A fellow named Foyt. 1967 was one of the years A. J. Foyt won. We had moved in January of that year from New…

A new exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science: Imperial Rome. I went to the media preview last week; the lines were long at the buffet and the bar (with men (and women!) in Roman soldier costumes roaming the area), so my son and I went straight to the exhibit. Lots of busts of…

In today’s Houston Chronicle: Catholic diocese [sic] extends property in downtown. Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral has purchased the former Federal Reserve Bank block for a new Cathedral Centre, which will house parish offices, ministries, classrooms, a bookstore and cafeteria.